A Global Investment bank was facing higher attrition and poor employee engagement. Running internal communication initiatives required revamping and strategy too. A detailed qualitative project involving focused group discussions and in-depth interviews across middle, senior and leadership team conducted to understand their perceptions, expectations and scope for improvement in current internal communications. Additionally cluster based profiling was done to understand the psychometrics of the organization and recipient behavior. Eye opening findings were appreciated by CEO and global corporate communications team. Follow-up included training & development modules and enhanced communications strategy.

THE SITUATION

• Client wished to understand the intimate care and hygiene market in India
• Consumers attitude towards intimate care, brands and products used, influencers, key drivers and bariers to the category
• Physicians and gynaecologists view on the market and perceived challenges in the category

THE APPROACH

• A detailed qualitative survey using hybrid method
• Focused Group Discussions with females suffering from vaginal infections/recently faced the problem
• In-depth interviews with physician and gynaecologists
• Both psychographic and demographic information obtained with respect to lifestyle, leisure activities and hobbies, sources of information and preferences, awareness and attitude to personal care, attitude to intimate care, brands and products preferred, influencers etc
• Feedback on client's product

THE RESULT

• Profile and pen portrait of the potential target
• Intimate care continuum
• Brands and products portfolio
• Key apprehensions and unmet needs
• Inputs to marketing strategy and feedback on current product

• World of consumer and various touch points are evolving. In today's time when consumer choices and influences are not limited to traditional methods, it has become important for client to understand how they 'experience' various brands, products and services and identify possibility of interaction in the purchase or decision making process.
• Our team has worked across E-commerce clients to help them understand their consumers and their needs better wrt to various user interfaces they are exposed to interact with brands/products and services.
• These interactions are helpful in understanding Points of triggers and moments of realization in SHOPPERS DIGITAL JOURNEY, product features experience and prioritization, product innovations and improvements.
• Information Areas & Insights
• Overall appeal
• Ease of navigation
• Product selection process
• Preference drivers
• Decision influencers
• Competitive benchmarking
• Brand imagery and position vis a vis competition

Travel customer research Qualitative Research for feedback on user interface, for various LOBs

• Mobile app
• Flights
• Flights + Hotels
• Holidays
• Hotels
• Insights

New internet browser evaluation and feedback among developers

Need

A newly formed Healthcare services company approached us for creating database comprising of private clinics and healthcare practitioners across India for their newly launched application

The requirements:

• 1. Ensure credible data – Given the competitive business environment and presence of several players, the focus required ensuring quality as well has high productivity
• 2. Example Information areas - Real time information, geo location, images of clinics and doctors etc.
• 3. Setting up operations excellence
• 4. Continuous feedback on survey data app for improvement
• 5. Identification and training of appropriate team members
• 6. Quality control and management
• 7. Identification and finalization of location for survey
• 8. BTL marketing support in building awareness

Results

Armed with required amount of clinical data, our client's application and website is ready to serve public and has already become the preferred application in healthcare for finding specialist clinics or doctors in required area. Client has been able to raise funds and scale reach and operations.

A child's experiences in his early life greatly influence his eventual adult development. Studies suggest that 50% or more of a child's mature intelligence is developed by the time he turns 4. It is no wonder then, that a child's early years are called his formative years. All parents wish to provide every possible benefit to their child during their early formative years to ensure success in later years. How early does talent emerge? How important are the initial signs of talent with regard to adult life?

Identifying child's talent area can cause a lot of worry among parents. Trying to decide which hobby or talent their child should cultivate is not always easy.

"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Observing what child enjoys doing in his or her free time may show a heightened level of interest in a particular field which in turn may help identify their natural talent.

Travel industry is moving from a transaction fulfilment model to platforms, systems, content and technology that cover the whole spectrum of the travel. This is to incorporate recommendation and discovery into the consumer experience as much as transactions. Consumer questions have changed from closed end ones- "How much for a ticket?" to open ones "Where should I travel next?" Customer travel search patterns are becoming more volatile and it is becoming increasingly important looking out for that potential buyer long before he or she is ready to demonstrate commitment through purchase.

This also means that consumers are now open to ideas, recommendations and hence may not always begin with response in the head 'where to go', An 'open research' platforms would be more relevant - to start the online travel process from a search box based around something other than selecting a date and destination (the traditional online travel agent starting point). A lot of airlines and other travel suppliers plus intermediaries are spending serious time and money trying to make their websites more appealing to the undecided holiday maker. Also, trying to carve out a meaningful role for them by being the destination site to influence the 'undecideds' – those leisure travellers to yet to commit to a destination. These companies are offering innovative tools and solutions such as:

• Drag, click, build and recommend from as many sites as you like: apps to build up a trip idea, notion, inspiration and plan without actually having an engine at all. By just dragging ideas from a site to a planning product.
• Multi-click criteria selection: Instead of clicking on a destination these sites are getting consumers to start the inspiration to travel from different starting points such as date, experience ranking, price, images etc.
• Organisation and history first: Sites start with the bookings already made by travellers providing travellers a service for collating and storing all the bookings made on various sites e.g. Tripit tool.
• No search – just a push: Just a limited list of deals targeted at a select user group.

'Research' and 'inspiration' as categories are linked.

International Travel portals have already started leveraging it and there are two interesting different routes being adopted for example below:

Conclusion

'Inspiration' in connection with travel may be suitably leveraged by Domestic Online travel agencies for improving their proposition, product experience and retaining customers.

Saizen Global Insights & Consulting conducted survey among 600 doctors(Cardiologists and General Physicians) across metro. Survey findings received media attention and clients got decent coverage across national and regional print and online media. The survey called ‘Visualizing the Extent of heart Disease in Indian women’ (VEDNA) by Heal Foundation.

• There is 20% growth in cardiovascular diseases among women in the last five years.
• About 41% of doctors claimed an alarming 10-15% growth in cardiovascular diseases among women in the age group of 20-40 years - the category which was earlier considered protected from heart ailments.
• Changing life style to be blamed for increment. Risk factors like stress, smoking and drinking have increased considerably, co-morbid conditions like obesity, hypertension and diabetes have also gone up
• The survey revealed that 83% of the doctors believed that Indian women are ignorant about heart diseases. While 76% of doctors observed that women die of heart diseases as they do not seek medical aid in time, 66% death occur due to late diagnosis.

Read more at:

• DNA-Lifestyle eroding women's resilience to heart disease
• DNA-Young Women no More Safe from Heart Diseases
• Deccan Chronicle- Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Indian Women
• Time of India - Eves Heart at Risk Too

The Indian mobile handset market has grown by 30.17% from 116 mn handsets for the 2008 to 151 mn handsets till 2009, says a report by Analysys Mason. The report further forecasts that the market is expected to grow from a total of 151 mn handsets in 2009 to 402 mn handsets in 2014. The market share for handsets made by new vendors saw a steep rise from below 1% in the first quarter of 2008 to 33% in the quarter ending June 30, 2010. New vendors are described at those that have been in the market less than three years.(IDC report) Key drivers for growth of telecom market

Replacement handset market rather than new user additions. Consumers are now very receptive towards newer brands

• The replacement market is expected to grow from 118 mn handsets (62.77% of overall Indian mobile handset market) in 2010 to 359 mn handsets till 2014 constituting 89.30% of the overall Indian mobile handset market.

Growth of 'medium' Average Selling Price devices (devices with a price in the range of 2,000 to 5,000)

• The contribution of medium ASP (average selling price) devices has increased from 34.48% from 2008 to 45.03%in 2009.
• Volumes increasing from 68 mn handsets in 2009 to 240 mn handsets by 2014.
• Segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.07% in the next 4 years.

Growing rural consumption

• The rural market which is still largely untapped, demands for products that offer basic functionality along with some eye-catching features at competitive pricing
• Most local and low-cost cell phone manufacturers have gained from customizing their products for the rural market.
• "They have been very innovative in terms of loading their phones with a lot of applications – like FM radio and dual SIM card function – even as they have maintained a pricing structure which is very attractive to the Indian buyer

Reaching out to customers

Competition is fierce and the key to survival of the new handset players in India lies in local manufacturing, right pricing and niche segmentation.

The vendors are doing everything, from reaching the remotest part of the country, hiring celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag, and Bipasha Basu to promote their brand-to offering new features like 30 to 70-day long battery life, multi SIM phones carrying 2, 3 and at times 4-SIMs.

Most of the vendors have gone through the unorganized retail route to make their presence felt in various markets, and to reach out to customers.

Success of electronics depends upon: Availability and prompt after sales services.

3Ps-Price, performance and post-sales can make or break a brand.

Durability (35%) seen as the most important factor while buying a mobile handset, followed by brand preference (29%) and service & support quality (20%).(CMI 2011 Survey Report)

'Satisfaction with Overall Performance': India Mobile Handset Users (CMI 2011 Survey)

Majority of Blackberry users (66%) felt their handsets provided 'excellent' or 'very good' value for money, followed by Nokia users (58%) and Samsung users (57%). Amongst new, emerging brands G'five users (56%) showed the maximum score on the same attributes. Other new, emerging brands like Micromax (54%) and Spice (54%) closely follow this trend. 'Satisfaction with overall performance' followed a similar pattern.

Customer care centres

As per CMI report in areas like Customer Care and After Sales Support, niche brands like Blackberry (86%) were able to delight their customers. Emerging brands like Micromax (74%) and Spice (66%) also showed promise on this parameter, at par with the established brands like Nokia (78%), LG (74%) and Samsung (71%).

Company Profiles

LAVA Mobiles:

• Incorporated in March 2009, Based in Uttar Pradesh.
• Company crossed primary of 2 lakh handset in December 2009' (in just1 month) in just 6 months of operations and in March 31, 2010 Co. touched turnover of 307 crore with currently 2.7 million plus using LAVA handset.
• Presence: UP (W), TN, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, WB, NE, Orissa, AP, Karnataka & Kerala, Maharashtra and Goa.
• Awarded as "Fastest Growing Mobile Phone Indian Brand" by CMAI (Communications Multimedia and Infrastructure) Association of India during National Telecom Awards ceremony 2011.
• Products:
  • The phones manufactured by this company come along with wide array of features such as GPRS, Bluetooth and EDGE connectivity for internet users, FM Radio and Music player for those who like to listen to music all the time, Camera phones for those who prefer it, Dual SIM phones to integrate personal and professional life in one phone and other such functions at a reasonably lower prices.
  • Key Models:
    • A10: Touch phone and sleek
    • B6 : Qwerty key pad/Alpha
    • M30: Music phone
    • ARCO5: Extra Slim design

New products in pipeline: Tablets

• Company Message: "Get the Power in Your Hand"
  • Vision: To give power to consumers in terms of featured handsets at a very economical price.
  • Empower people with mobile devices that fulfil unmet needs of Indian consumers
  • Power and integrity with a dash of simplicity
  • Brand Ambassador: None

Karbonn Mobiles Founded in March 2009.

• It is a joint venture Mobile manufacturing company between the Bangalore based United Telelinks Limited (A group of Telecom Major, United Telecoms Limited) and Noida based Jaina Marketing & Associates. The company's total investment in Indian consumer market is over $5 million and expects to gain Rs. 1000 Crore revenue in the current fiscal year.
• The company has tied up with leading semiconductor companies worldwide for their handsets and targets mainly the budget conscious consumers. The company currently has around 150 exclusively dedicated Service centres for Karbonn all over India.
• Karbonn is setting up its foot prints outside India staring with Bangladesh and will soon reach Sri Lanka and Nepal followed by Middle East and Africa. Sale and distribution network of Karbonn covers around 80% of the district in all the Indian states.
• Message: Stunning aesthetics meet unrivalled innovation
• Brand Ambassador: Virender Sehwag

Micromax : Nothing Like Anything

Third largest mobile handset sellers in India

• Sells more than a million handsets a month with a market share of around 10%
• Has a presence in more than 500 districts through 34 "super-distributors", 450 distributors and 70,000 retailers
• Micromax is gaining market share in India by making cheap phones with long battery life and offering other features local consumers want.
• Its first handset was the Micromax X1 boasting a month long battery life
• Posted revenues of Rs 1,600 crore and a net profit of Rs 150 crore in 2009-10
• Strategy: Innovating, designing and using latest technology to develop products at affordable price
• Brand Ambassador: Akshay Kumar

Contact : Kavita@saizenglobal.com